Hi All,
I’m currently thinking to open my own plant shop. I love collecting and taking care of plants. I have 80 plus plants in my house and I have also started selling plants on fb marketplace as well.
I work as a robot technician and have a good salary but I’m not really interested to work in this field so reading a lot about starting a small business. I already have 70k saved to buy my own house but now, I’m seriously considering opening a plant shop. I have got my business number and checked few stores for leasing. I also contacted few wholesalers to buy more common plants but can’t really buy in bulk yet because of no place to store. Honestly I don’t have much knowledge about business but I used to work at a convince store few years ago so have some idea about dealing with customers. Renting a commercial space and then, surviving on this business seems very risky. Can anyone give me few tips or suggest me any book to not to self doubt. Also, any tips related to opening your own store.
Thanks,
I don’t have many answers for you, but here are a few questions that you may want to consider and/or research, if you haven’t already:
- Who is your target market? Do you want to sell to end-users (plant owners) or to resellers (making you a wholesaler) or both? Take a bit of time to figure out who your target customers are, and that will help you make a number of other related decisions.
- Taking into account the answer to (1), what are your preferred sales channels? A wholesaler may want a warehouse or a place in a wholesaler’s market; whereas, an in-person retailer may want anything from a mobile plant-truck, farmers’ markets locations, or a permanent shop. An online retailer would need a place to store, package, photograph, and ship plants.
- What risks do you have, and how can you mitigate them? Example: Pests and/or disease are easy to spread in nursery conditions. You can easily either spread them to your customers (risking your reputation and their collections) or lose your entire current inventory. How will you ensure your plants are pest and disease free?
- What regulations exist that impact your business? Plants are more heavily regulated than you’d necessarily think. There are state and federal level regulations at minimum. Depending on what kind of plants you want to sell and if you plan to ship or receive shipments, you may require some sort of permitting/inspection/etc.
- What resources and knowledge do you currently have? If you live in a studio apartment with no balcony, you’ll have a lot fewer growing spaces than if you live on an 80-acre farm. How many months can you live without making an income? How much income do you need to make? What plant-specific knowledge do you have? Do you have a passion for plants in general or do you have a favorite area? etc
All these questions are not to dissuade you in any way - just all things that may help you come to a decision if you haven’t already considered them. I love plants also, though I’m especially skilled at killing them (ask me how I know about pests and diseases!) Best of luck in your future endeavors!
Hi, Thanks for the response. I think I’m good with taking care of the plants. Almost all my plants are doing good and I’m always precautions about the pests. I want to sell it to plant-owners and have a permanent shop. I want to buy it in bulk and sell. I would love to grow some rare and exotic plants by my own and sell. I’m growing few already. Will look more about permits/selling etc. I live in condo building so don’t have much space. My condo is already full with so many plants. Also, One of the reason i want that is to have my evenings and hopefully Saturday or Sunday free. I have worked in night shift for few years and currently in Afternoon shift and I doubt if i can get a morning shift. So with my own shop, i can have more flexibility. So a bad job is also one of the reason i want to have my own business.
If you want to start up a plant shop, you need to solve the location problem first.
This means mirroring traditional brick and mortar business model. Find a suitable location, create a storefront, and then drive traffic to it.
You can find suitable location with help of real estate agent and/or consultant.
Average cost to outfit small retail store is between $100K and $125K. You will also need inventory (i.e. $25K) and capital (i.e. $50K) to cover operating expenses until business is cash flow positive.
So, total start up expenses may reach $200K.
Driving traffic cost money too.
Attracting pass-by traffic (pedestrians, motorists) requires a great location. Great locations usually command high rents. So does effective advertising and promotion.
Finally, after you get them in the door, you have to close the deal (personal selling).
Consequently, this brings up the notion of best fit.
Are your traits as robot technician a good match with the requirements for shop keeper?
Another thing to consider is installing and maintaining plants for offices. I have a plant lady who charges me around $200/month to stop by once a week and water/maintain our plants. She also was responsible for choosing and installing them.
What will make you different than other plant shops/Home Depot/other places that sell plants? I think offering coffee or some sort of food that people can snack on while they look would be a good idea